


The Brokenness of Black Cats

by TheWordsmithWolf



Series: Please Don't Say Goodbye [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Again I came up with the akuma on the fly., Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 10:39:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7973812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWordsmithWolf/pseuds/TheWordsmithWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ladybug gets distracted by a certain cat, things go badly from here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Brokenness of Black Cats

**Author's Note:**

> This is to be read separately from The Loneliness of Ladybugs. You can read this one without having read the other. Just thought I'd clear up any confusion before it happened.

    Black cats are always unlucky. Black cats can never truly be the happiest they could ever be. Not the heroes at least.

  
    Many of Plagg’s kittens have been happy, oh of course they have! Why wouldn’t they, they had the chance to be a superhero! But, not the happiness that they could have, happiness that came with the honesty that any usual person could have. Of someone who didn’t have so many secrets, someone who could tell their significant other everything! Black Cats did not have this freedom. Black Cats were alone, with only their Bugs to tell their problems. Oh many times, many more times than either Kwami could count, their kittens and bugs found love in one another, but so many times this love was unrequited, still in its bud but never bloomed, a snowflake doomed to never become anything but be destroyed before coming to fruition.

  
    Adrien knew this, all explained by Plagg. It came as a surprise really, the feline Kwami usually so flippant, so distractible, seeming to never think of anything other than food, sleep and warmth. For him to be so suddenly serious, looking his kitten with eyes turned green steel, telling him that the job of Black Cats is dangerous. The boy simply laughed with a dismissive hand gesture, and a remark about that fact being obvious.

  
    Plagg however pressed further, “Adrien” the Kwami stressed, “I am serious. By all the stars boy!” the godlike being’s apparent frustration startled the boy into silence. “Adrien,” The Kwami repeated, sounding more tired than an 18-wheeler. With a heavy sigh he started again. “Adrien, Black Cats have died¬, many of them with years of experience over you! I…. I don’t want you to share their fate.” He had left a solemn pause there, trying to gather his thoughts. “Adrien, being Chat Noir seems like a blessing, a boon of unimaginable,” the Kwami paused, a sad and ironic laugh sounding. “luck.” He finished with a hard stare at his chosen. The boy’s expression was still sobered by the seriousness of his Kwami’s explanation.

  
    “Adrien I’ve tried to explain to you just how important we are. Tikki always gets the limelight, with good reason of course, and we black cats are always left to sit in her Ladybug’s shadows. However, our job is more important than the purification of Akuma and other negative spirits.” He sighed then, bringing a paw to rub at his temple. Plagg never liked explaining the duties of the Black Cat to his chosen. It never ceased to fill him with loss and longing for his gone and lost kittens. “Our duties always include protecting Ladybug, without her there would be no healing, no fixing, only chaos and broken things.” A grim bark of laughter broke free from the Kwami’s throat. “Ironic isn’t it? We being of destruction prevent it from happening.” He grew sober once more however, “Adrien,” Plagg’s expression was pained, sadness painting his face. “if… if Ladybug should ever... fall in battle, you must return her Miraculous to the Guardian. No matter what your feelings, Ladybug needs to be there. She is the only one who can purify Akuma.” 

     Adrien’s face contorted, a mask of sorrow and worry covering his features. He didn’t want to think about that, sure their daily lives were filled with danger, but he just couldn’t think about that. His Lady was strong and beautiful and courageous. Surely she could withstand anything that Hawkmoth could throw at them! But still, the little seed of worry and doubt that Plagg’s speech had planted had wormed their way into the recesses of his mind. 

    Surely however, this could wait for later, thought Adrien as he settled down for sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

    However, unbeknownst to Adrien, later always comes too soon. It was only a week, this akuma was full of pain. A construction worker, enraged by the way that her male co-workers treated her had snapped, her rage transforming her into La Metalitrise. She looked to be made of steel, with glowing pale blue eyes. A vision of Nike, terrible and gleaming, was perched like a statuette on a trophy. However this trophy filled the citizens of Paris with fear and horror. On one of the spires of Notre-Dame, La Metalitrise bellowed her demands. The Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir.  

  
     “They want to mock me for being a woman, they’ll not cat call anyone else frOM WITHIN A BLOCK OF STEEL” The steel lady shouted from the lowest spire of the grand cathedral.

  
     That is however when a sudden black blur sped by on rooftops near-by. “Oh come now miss iron maiden,” The cat superhero quipped. “The only one that this cat will be calling is none other than my Lady” He laughed, before he spotted the spotted superheroine. “Oh Ladybug, mon cher. Wherever could you be?” He quipped with a cheshire grin on his face, as he leapt from one rooftop to another.

  
    The aforementioned superheroine, hiding behind a chimney, was quickly assessing the Akuma at hand, using the camera function of her yo-yo and zooming in as far as she could. She couldn’t seem to find any obvious hiding places that the black butterfly could be in. However when the sunlight hit her.. yes that was it! The woman had a silver filigree bracelet with a glowing stone set into it. 

     With a contained _zwhipp_ her yo-yo flew from her palm, grappling itself to one of the gargoyles of Notre-Dame. As she swung, she heard Chat yell with a laugh. 

     “Ah there you are Mademoiselle Coccinelle! My Lady would you care if this cat comes to call you?” The black suited superhero said as he crouched on a slanting roof top, using his baton to hit projectiles thrown by La Metalitrise’s ferrokinesis.   

     “I might kitten! Only if it doesn’t get in the wa-” She stopped, suddenly and heartbreakingly, as she failed to dodge the rebar being thrown at her by the Akuma as she swung in mid-air. “Chat! H-help.” She tried to keep hold of her yo-yo strings as her trembling fingers scrabbled for purchase against the wire. She was falling then, her arms and legs moving frantically as she tried futilely to stop her rapid descent.   

     He panicked, and he ran, leaping from the roof he was on and into action. Long strides brought him under her and the magically enhanced strength in his limbs was the only thing that kept him from dropping her. He snarled, a growling hiss bubbling in the back of his throat, quickly dying as the young woman in his arms gave a strangled cry. The metal that had lodged itself deep in her having shifted during her fall. He barely registered the sound of her yo-yo clattering to the ground, useless without its wielder’s hands. 

    Looking around quickly, his eyes fell onto a broken building, boarded up windows telling him that it was in fact abandoned. Gently shifting his Lady to one arm, he grabbed his baton and vaulted them to the building and into one of the windows.

 

    A kick to the brittle glass was all it took to gain entry. He laid her down, on her side in a futile attempt to prevent the rebar from damaging her even worse than it already had. 

     Ladybug gasped, helpless tears slipping down her cheeks as the rebar in her gut and chest kept her from bleeding out but made her death come slowly. "Ch-Chat" A sob was bitten back in the core of her throat. "I-I-I know you love me, and I c-care about you too." She bit her lip as a shift of the rebar made bolts of pain echo across her body. "B-b-b-but I w-ish that I could have," a hollow and pained laugh echoed past her lips "I wish that I could have told Adrien Agreste how I really f-f-f-felt about him" Her head lolled back as she seemed to give up, but she stayed alive. 

      Chat bit back a sob of his own as the love of his life confessed to him, without even knowing it. "M-my Lady, I-I, th-that is do you think it would be alright i-if I revealed myself to you. Please. " The last word stressed, pleading, almost begging to the girl he loved to allow him to tell her that her feelings were not unreciprocated, whoever she might be. 

    His heart sank as she fixed him with a hard stare, "No." The word was hard and cold like steel and it pierced through his heart like thorns. "Chat no, please. I want you, as I've always known you to be the last thing I see." she let out a deep sigh now, "I-I think I'm almost done here now, a-a-and Tikki," The red-clad superhero said, sounding broken and filled with regret. "I-I'm sorry, and I love you." 

      Chat bit back another sob, “M-my L-L-Lady,” he stuttered, his self-confident and flirty façade had melted away to show what he truly was, a lonely and scared boy who was about to lose the love of his life and his best friend, the one who knew him more than anyone. “Is, w-w-well what I mean to ask is. Would you, do you want me to do anything? Anything that I can do for you?” 

      She smiled sadly at him, “I know that soon after I am gone, Tikki will be forced to release the transformation, so I-I want you to take care of my parents. Tikki can tell you who they are if you need her to.  And please, once I’m gone, I want you to have your Kwami take Tikki’s earrings to the Guardian, I don’t know where he is. But I think your Kwami will know where he lives. I-I-I met him back when L-Lila turned into Volpina,” She smiled sadly once again. “Chaton, I know your heart will be broken and bleeding, I know. But there needs to be a Ladybug. And if I can’t be there, someone else has to. “ She reached up to stroke his cheek. 

      He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch, a quivering purr thrumming through his throat, trying to assuage his grief and guilt. He was supposed to be her knight, her shield from all that would harm her. He failed her. “My Lady” He said, but she was stopped when her ice-cold fingers touched his lips.  
  
     “No Chaton, don’t apologize, you did nothing wrong, and if anything. I share the blame.” A smile now, like the ghost of the one which she wore when flying through Paris.  “We are partners you and I. That will never change.” She coughed, and blood nearly as read as her suit dribbled from the corner of her mouth. “Chat, I-I’m scared, would you. That is, could you please sing? Anything, just so I won’t feel so scared?” She asked, her eyes pleading and filling with tears.  
  
      Chat Noir’s throat constricted, but nodded regardless. “Of course mon cher.” His mind raced, then selected a song he had sang his mother once, he had found it on the internet and she had said he sang it lovely. “Je t'aime, je t'aime toujour; I am forever yours; Sweet dreams, sweet dreams mon cher; You're always in my prayer,” His voice was soft and wavering on the verge of tears, but he was determined to finish the song for her. He owed her that much. “Softly, sweetly; Wrapped up in heaven's arms; Sailing, soaring over the moon; Gathering stardust. Be still, be safe, be sure; Je t'aime, je t'aime toujour.” Her eyes were closing now, her breath shallow and weak. She was fading now, he would lose her soon. “Wishing, praying; All of your dreams come true; Please remember; Where'er you are my heart is with you.” Tears were slipping silently down his cheeks now, over his mask to splash on Ladybug’s. His own eyes were closed, his head tipped up as he sang his heart out for the Lady that had captured it in her yo-yo as she had so many akuma. “Sweet dreams, sweet dreams mon cher; Always in my prayer.”  
  
      Then he heard her cough faintly once more. Even his enhanced hearing could only just pick up her whisper, “Je vais vous voir bientôt chaton.” He then heard her give one last exhale before she went limp in his arms, never to move again. 

     His heart broke again as he whispered the last line of the song. “I am forever yours, Je t'aime, je t'aime toujour” 

      He sat there waiting, unsure of what to do. Whether to wait for Ladybug’s Kwami, Tikki she had said, to be forced out of the transformation, or to go and try to defeat La Metalitrise before dealing with… the matter at claw. He decided to wait, that the Akuma who did this to his lady could wait as long as he damn well pleased.  
  
      He sobbed then, some of the shock dissolving and letting him feel the burning pain in his chest. Tears of grief and rage ran down his cheeks as he wept into his gloved hands, pulling his legs to his chest and resting his forehead on his knees. He sat there for what seemed like years, tears splattering onto the dusty concrete floor of the abandoned building.

  
     His tears stopped flowing, soon before a flash of bright pink lightening, covered Ladybug’s body. Flashing over her body, it made the red and black disappear, leaving only grey, white and pink. Chat sat there, shock making him freeze and gape. He hardly noticed the red and black kwami, thrown from the earrings and sitting forlornly on the floor near him, looking to be in shock herself.

  
     He started laughing, though there was no mirth to be found in the sound, it was harsh and steely cold. “She.. She was sitting right behind me!” He said on the verge of hysterics. “The entire time and I didn’t even know it. The love of my life was right behind me!” His tears started flowing freely again, his lips were trembling, trying as hard as he could not to make a sound.

  
    Tikki seemed to be freed from her grief-stricken stupor. She was hungry, yes but she had to push forward. She floated weakly to rest on Chat’s knees. “Chat,” she said quietly, her high voice squeaking. “we have to go, we have to defeat her. M-M-Marinette wo-would want us to.” The tiny god wept.

     “Your name is Tikki right? That’s what she said before she, she you know. I, I know she didn’t want to find out b-b-b-but I-I am Adrien Agreste, an-an-and she sat behind me. Ladybug sat behind me and I had no idea!” He cried.

  
     The Kwami’s paws went to cover her mouth, more tears pooling in her eyes. As they fell, red glitter fell off her small cheeks as she wept.

  
     “Tikki, what can I do? I-I can’t purify Akuma. A-and Plagg told me th-that using Cataclysm on them is a very bad idea.” Chat said, his voice breaking with the raw emotion that he was dealing with. If he had been able, he would likely be sent an Akuma by the bastard that did this.

      “Chat there is a way. However it is _always_ a last resort. Saved only f-f-for situations su-uch as this.” The red Kwami cautioned, her high voice concerned and with a clear warning. “Plagg wouldn’t have told you, because of course there was no need to. However, Chat Noir _can_ help purify evil spirits. What you have to do is, catch it in your claws and breathe into your hands. Strange I know but believe me. It works.” 

     Nodding, Chat asked. “Alright Mi-Miss Tikki, what about her Lucky Charm? The Cure?”

  
     Realizing with wide eyes and a sharp nod. “Yes! You of course cannot use the Lucky Charm. But you do have a replacement for the Cure. If you flick your bell while Cataclysm is active it will perform something nearly like the Cure. N-Now go. I don’t have much time left with her, b-b-before I get called back to my earrings. A-And I’d like a moment alone? Please?”

      Chat bit his lip, tears welling again. “Of course. I understand. I’m sorry th-that we had to meet like this.”

    Floating up to give him a peck on the cheek, Tikki smiled sadly. “It isn’t the first time I’ve had to meet one of Plagg’s kittens like this. It certainly won’t be the last. I will look forward to working with you more. Now go. Make her proud.” Her eyes turned cold now and like blue steel.

      He nodded and left. He would take down La Metalitrise, he would destroy Hawkmoth. He would end this no matter what.

 

* * *

 

 

    It was a snowy winter afternoon in Paris, everything was calm and the city was at peace. Nothing stirred other than snowflakes and the breeze in the small park. Except for a man, holding a bouquet of blood red roses and black tulips, fashioned after a ladybug’s spots. He was walking slowly, his steps measured and deliberate, the blue scarf around his neck fluttered gently in the wind that ran its icy fingers through his blond hair. When he reached the statue he smiled sadly. Placing a gloved hand on the marble base of the bronze statue, he huffed a quiet sigh. He felt the shift in the breast pocket of his coat and looked down to see the familiar black head and green eyes of his longtime companion, with a small smile at the tiny god, he looked once more at the statue. She was splendid, a moment frozen in time, a time when his world wasn’t broken and missing a crucial piece, the statue was like the one that had been erected all those years ago. However this one was only of her.    


      Her arm was outstretched as she flung her bronze yo-yo foreward, to catch some part of a building to aide her fluid flight. The spots were etched onto the metal, along with the texture of her hair and the details of her mask. A shining smile, oh god how he missed her smile, was on her bronze features, so detailed that he could almost see the life in her face and the light in her eyes. The dull ache in his heart grew, becoming a sharp pang as he remembered her as she was, vibrant and fierce.    


      “My Lady,” he finally managed to cough out around the lump in his throat. “I know  you aren’t here now, and that the chances of us meeting again are slim, in this life or another. But I miss you, so much.” His voice cracked then as tears welled up in his eyes, before crawling their silent way down his cheeks and onto the marble of the base of the memorial. “Bridgette is a fine Ladybug, and she improves every day, but she could never replace you. We were about the same age she was when we started too no?” A humorless chuckle left his lips, his breath creating a white puff in the frigid air.    


       The bronze statue offered no answers, no opinions, only stared at the steel grey sky above her, smiling like all the world was below her and she was having the time of her life. Adrien Agreste stood there, shaking with unvoiced sobs as he let his decade-old grief wash over him again.    


**Author's Note:**

> In the beginning of this, Chat and LB are about 18-19 years old, and at the end Adrien is about 27-28 years old. 
> 
> Hello hello again! Now you might be wondering "But where is the second chapter of The Loneliness of Ladybugs?" Well, I wanted to first finish this, which if you didn't know by now, is just like TLoL but with the poor cat son as the survivor. 
> 
> Please feel free to read the other work in this series. And eventually we might get one about The Worst Dad Ever. Buut my muse is a fickle mistress and doesn't always like me soooooo. 
> 
> La Metalitrise is a combination of metal, and "la maîtrise" which is a word that means mastery of control  
> Translations:
> 
> "mon cher" translates to "my dear"  
> "Mademoiselle Coccinelle" translates to "Miss Ladybug"  
> "Je vais vous voir bientôt chaton" translates to "I'll see you soon kitten."
> 
>  
> 
> Speaking of Adrien, the song he sang to LB is called Je T'amie by Kelly Sweet.  
> I found it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oA6Vxzb6As 
> 
> This was originally meant to be posted during Miraculous Fandom Week, but some purrsonal things happened. (My cat has been missing and I've been unraveling myself trying to find her. )


End file.
